The present invention relates generally to the portability of electronic data and, more particularly, to a system and method for the authentication of data transferred between multiple computer servers.
Soon after the advent of the computer was the advent of the computer game. The first computer games were simple, single-player games. As it became common to network two or more computers, a genre of multi-player computer games evolved, allowing multiple individuals to play against each other from individual but networked computers. The increase in popularity of the Internet has provided a perfect medium for multi-player games to prosper in the past few years. Some of these games, called massively multi-player online games (MMOGs), are capable of supporting hundreds, if not thousands, of players simultaneously. These MMOGs allow players to compete with and against a vast number of other players in a persistent online world.
These online “worlds” are typically hosted by a single, unique host server, which is usually owned and operated by the inventor/owner/exclusive licensee of the game. Players then pay a fee—most often on a monthly or bimonthly basis—in order to participate in the game. This leads to one of the main weaknesses facing these games today—hackers. Hackers have been able to break into the host servers and essentially steal the host side of the MMOG. The hacker can then create a “pirate” host server. Through this pirate host server, the hacker can allow participants to play the game for free or charge a fee and profit. Either way, the person who owns the game and the original server has been cheated. In the past, when the owner of the legitimate host server has tried to shut down a pirate server, they have not been successful due to large part to the software being copyrighted and not patented. As a result, the pirates often prevail by alleging reverse engineering of the software and not illegal copying.
Some of the most popular MMOGs are role-playing games (MMORPGs), in which the players assume the role of a fictional character and take control over that character's actions. During the course of the game, players build up character features such as strength, intelligence, wealth, and other characteristics desirable for the particular game. Players can also acquire weapons, magic potions, money and other items which can be used by a player's character. Competition on these MMORPGs has become very intense with players investing large amounts of time in order to develop their characters.
This leads to the other main weakness facing these types of games—cheating. Some players have developed bots, or automated programs, that assist in accumulating characteristics by playing the illegal or fake instance of the game automatically, continuously and indefinitely. The cheaters join a game, create characters and then have their programs play the game to build up the characters and acquire objects. Once they have a built up character, they can take over and play the artificially enhanced character themselves or they can sell the character off line for real world money. These built up characters are then taken to the “real” version of the game and used to play the game without having to spend the time and other real-world resources it would have taken to attain that character. This cheats not only the operator of the game server but also other players that have spent considerable resources to build up their own characters.
There is a need in the art for a system that solves the above problems and allows for the creation of a free market for virtual items with protections similar to those which people experience with real world items, which is an object of the present invention. There is a need for a system that allows for multiple online host servers. Having a scheme which accommodates multiple legitimate host servers would limit the ability of pirates to steal the host server software and use it for profit. Therefore, it is another object of the present invention to guarantee that transactions, or the portability of data, between multiple hosts are valid and for those validated transactions to exist among multiple trusted hosts.